The Dark Who?
by Miss Singing in the Rain
Summary: The three times three incarnations of the Doctor encountered the Dark Knight.
1. The Doctor Begins

**A/N: DOCTOR WHO IS BACK! WOHOO! This takes place between "The Doctor Dances" and "Boom Town," for those who would like a general timeline. Apart from that, hope you enjoy and please review!  
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**Disclaimer: Neither "The Dark Knight Trilogy" and "Doctor Who," and the link to the place I got the cover art from is on my profile.  
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The Doctor Begins

"So where are we Doctor?" Rose asked, stepping out of the TARDIS into the puddle filled streets of a towering city. The leather jacket clad Ninth Doctor licked his finger and held it to the air as he sniffed his surroundings.

"A little more than a year in your future … North America… probably North Eastern Unites States… Gotham City."

"We're in Gotham?" Jack Harkness asked, sticking his head out of the TARDIS.

"What's Gotham?" Rose queried.

"Gotham City, home of the Batman, Catwoman, the Joker, it's a city of insanity and adventure," Jack explained, grinning. He'd read about Batman as a kid and had always like the sound of him.

"I've always avoided cities like Gotham, a lot of history, too risky to visit," the Doctor frowned, stroking the TARDIS doors and checking his watch. "Speaking of which, I think we should go."

"What?" Rose and Jack cried.

"If I'm right, which I usually am, then tonight is the first night the Batman saves Gotham." Clanging echoed behind him and the trio turned to see a raised train drive by on the track, steam erupting from below and sending manhole covers skyrocketing, a black clad figure swinging from beneath the train. "And there he goes."

"A man… dressed like a bat… who saves cities… from what exactly?" Rose inquired.

"Oh y'know, the Mob, terrorists, chemical warfare, and bombs."

"He sounds like a more normal version of you," Rose smiled. The corner of the Doctor's mouth twitched up and he headed back inside, emerging moments later with three gas masks.

"Put these on. Don't want either of you getting poisoned," he said, handing a mask to each.

"Are you my mummy?" Jack teased after putting his on.

"Oh don't start that again." Rose frowned when she saw people outside, choking and running away from the gas.

"Wait… Doctor."

"No Rose," he said shortly.

"Doctor, if there are people dying out there–"

"Rose, we went over this, we can't stop fixed points."

"But the fixed part's already happened! Can't we help the people who have already been poisoned? Or is that against the 'oh so important Time Lord rules?'" Rose spat. The Doctor closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, making Rose's glare soften. "Doctor… can't we at least make sure this is an entirely human occurrence before we leave?"

"Rose…" he faltered at her pleading look and felt his resolve crumble and cave. "Alright. I'll analyze the gas, nothing more!"

"Thank you."

"I'll go get a sample of it," Jack volunteered through his gasmask. He headed out into the fog and returned with a vial of the white poison. The Doctor plugged the vial into the TARDIS console and smiled when the result popped up.

"Well, what'dya know. The flowers are of alien origin."

"What?" Rose asked, staring at the screen.

"Yeah, you know how in the Columbian exchange plants from the New and Old Worlds ended up on the other side of the ocean because people took them or accidentally carried them in their cargo? Same principle, only with spaceships and interstellar travel."

"Meaning–" she smiled.

"I can help."

"Yes! Thank you!" she shouted, leaping into his arms and pecking him on the cheek. He set her down with a smile and got to work on a device to rid Gotham of the gas.

"Aw come on, how come I don't get any of that?" Jack complained and Rose rolled her eyes and kissed him on the cheek too.

"Better?"

"Well…" Rose slapped his arm and they both chuckled as the Doctor fiddled with a device. He then hauled it outside with the gas-masked companions' help.

"Stand back," he ordered, pressing the trigger. A blast of fire skyrocketed into the atmosphere, where it exploded, drawing all of the poison gas away from the city and burning it as it spread in a blanketing inferno.

"What was that?" Rose asked.

"An atmospheric converter. I set it to ignite a certain kind of gas and send the blast into the sky and it burns all the gas of that type over a certain radius. This one was just large enough to burn all the poison gas in Gotham. The people will have to be cured of the effects individually but at least no one else will be infected."

"That could come in handy sometime," Jack stated, examining the device.

"Maybe. Anyway, better head out before the police arrive. The GCPD isn't exactly the friendliest of forces," the Doctor said and his two companions filed back into the TARDIS and vanished with a _VWOOP VWOOP_.

* * *

**A/N: Not the best, I know, but it gets better, I promise.**


	2. The Dark Who?

**A/N: Thanks for the review Victor. Sorry, but the Ponds won't be in this story. But Donna is in this chapter, so, hope that makes up for it. As for timeline, this is after "The Doctor's Daughter" and before "The Unicorn and the Wasp."  
**

The Dark Who?

"So, random destination?" Donna asked, stepping out into the dimly lit street. The Doctor scooped a paper up from the wind and frowned.

"Gotham? Why Gotham again?" he wondered.

"What's Gotham?"

"A city. You should know, the terrorist attack on it made international news." Donna shrugged.

"I think that was when I was in Egypt then." She shoved him when he rolled his eyes at her.

"Anyway, it's a city full of people almost as crazy as I am."

"In that case, we'd better get out. Don't want to risk it being contagious."

"Harhar, very funny Donna. Now if we could just find out–" he said, as they walked toward a main street.

**BANGBANGBANGBANGBANG!**

The Doctor covered Donna's body with his own, both of them hitting the ground to avoid the bullets. That was when they noticed the demented looking clown in a purple suit with a machine gun walking through the middle of the street.

"Come on, come on, I wantcha to do it, I wantcha to do it, come on, come on, I wantcha to do it, I wantcha to do it. Come on, hit me! Hit me! HIT ME!" the clown yelled and the figure in black yelled, but swerved at the last moment, hitting a wrecked semi behind him. The Doctor got up to help him, Donna following him, only for a SWAT team member to put a gun on the madman before they made it halfway there. The two then melted into the background as more of the GCPD arrived and closed off the scene.

"Doctor, who are they?" Donna questioned him, as the clown was loaded into a police car. The Doctor shook his head.

"The Batman and the Joker."

* * *

"Jim Gordon, UNIT commander John Smith, codename the Doctor. This is my partner Donna Noble," the Doctor said, holding up his psychic paper to the soon-to-be police commissioner. The dark haired man nodded at the ID but shook his head as he looked the duo over.

"Why would UNIT be interested in this?" he asked them.

"I'm somewhat freelance, Commissioner, I go and help where I want. Now what do we know about the Joker?" the Doctor asked, stashing the paper away and moving to look at the clown in the cell.

"Less than nothing."

"Give me a bit of time with him and I'll see what I can get out of him," the Doctor said and Jim nodded, too tired to argue, before heading out.

"Doctor… why are you so fascinated with him?" Donna asked as they turned to look at the Joker.

"He… reminds me of… someone I lost… Someone I couldn't save," he murmured and she frowned; she didn't want to crush his hopes but she didn't want to let him raise them too high either.

"Doctor, people can't be saved unless they want to. Not really," she told him, but he still was looking at the Joker with sadness she usually only saw when he mentioned Rose.

But the Doctor couldn't stop thinking. He only knew a bit about the Batman because of the Occupation of Gotham by the League of Shadows that wouldn't take place for another eight years, which had heralded a new era of Global Security for the Earth, and knew even less about the Joker. But, in the little he'd seen of the Joker and the Batman, he'd seen human counterparts to himself and the Master. His stomach churned upon remembrance of his fallen former friend and though he knew Donna was right, he couldn't stop himself from saying, "I just need to make sure."

* * *

The Joker twiddled his thumbs through his cuffs in the interrogation room. "You're not GCPD," he observed.

"Nope. But I'm here to talk. Think of this as a psychological evaluation," the Doctor said, sitting across the table. He'd thought about using his psychic abilities but the Joker was liable to try and take him hostage if he let him get that close. So old fashioned talking it was.

"Gonna use Rorschachs on me? Or word association? Oh, or try and find out how I really got my scars. Well I'll tell ya, I was a bit of a wanderer before I came to Gotham. Love of my life just died and I just couldn't sit still. Had to run. So I traveled with a friend, just the two of us. And it was fun, while it lasted." Behind the observation room glass, Donna squirmed. "But then, we ran into trouble. These guys, they were messing around with her, and she, she was a pistol and didn't put up with any of it and of course, I backed her up. So she calls them out on it, and well… things got bad. They attacked us, had me in a headlock and had two guys holding her." The Doctor sat a little taller. "And at this point, I was yellin', screamin' at them to let her go. And the leader had a knife at my throat and said, 'Sure, wise guy. We'll let her go, if you give us a smile.' She tells me not to, and of course, I don't listen and agree. And so they stick the knife in my mouth and, well, you can guess the rest," the Joker shrugged, gesturing to the scars that rimmed his mouth. "But the real funny part, you wanna guess the real funny part?" The Doctor didn't respond. "They killed her anyway. She died, bloody and blank, without any of the life and happiness that she'd once had in her face." The Joker leaned back in his chair and raised an eyebrow at the man across the table. "Is that what you wanted to hear, _sir_?" The Doctor let out a breath through his nose and stood, turning his back on the Joker and heading for the door. "Oh, by the way, you might wanna check on the DA. Make sure he got home safe and sound. He _is_ a wanted man after all." The Doctor didn't respond, just left.

* * *

The Doctor had wanted to leave right after that and, for once, Donna didn't argue. Between the psychoanalysis the Joker had given him and the delicate, easily changeable nature of Gotham's history over the next few days it was better to let history fold out without their interference. But not quite ready to leave entirely, they just skipped ahead to the week after the Joker's arrest and chose to visit the other half of the duo they'd seen in combat.

"Mr. Wayne, you have a visitor," Alfred said, leading the Doctor. Donna had chosen to keep the butler company instead of meeting the illustrious Bruce Wayne, wanting to give the Doctor the space needed to talk.

"Mr. Wayne, I'm–"

"I know who you are," Bruce interrupted. He was wearing a robe over his pajamas and holding a cane and the beginnings of a beard on his face. "UNIT's guy. Gordon mentioned you. And judging from the records I picked up on you, I'd judge you know who I am."

"Won't have to beat around the bush then, good." The Doctor sat across from the Batman. "I just wanted you to know that I'm sorry. So very sorry. Believe me, I've been where you are and while it may take a while, things will get better. But only if you let people in."

"Forgive me for having difficulty doing that. Me letting people in has a tendency to get them killed."

"Maybe find someone as dangerous as you are to let in." The Doctor smiled wryly. "Say, have you ever met a woman named Selina Kyle?" Bruce furrowed his eyebrows.

"Who?"

"Sorry. Little early on that one," the Doctor assured him. "But know that you can trust her. Well, kind of. Well, sort of. _Well_… maybe. Depends."

"Thank you?" Bruce said, not sure what to make of the strange man.

"No problem." The Doctor stood and shook the Batman's hand. "Good luck with life Bruce."

"You too, John." And then the Doctor left, as always, appearing like he'd almost never been there at all.


	3. The Dark Who? Rises

**A/N: Ok, last chapter. Kind of like a few others on this site but I tried to put my own little twist on it. Thanks for reading and hope you like it!**

The Dark Who? Rises

Bruce Wayne hiked through the desert back to civilization, praying to a God he didn't believe in that he could get to Gotham in time. Getting a flight or boat ride back to the area would be easy, he'd done it before, but getting inside the city would be the hard part. However, his thought process as to how to get back inside was cut off by _VWOOP VWOOP _as a blue Police Box appeared out of nowhere right in his path. On the other side, a man in a bowtie with a blue fire extinguisher stepped out, spraying the contents of the extinguisher inside the box as smoke cascaded out.

"Ok, spilling tea on the TARDIS console, not cool. Sorry dear. Now, where am I?" he asked, throwing the fire extinguisher over his shoulder as he looked around.

"Hello?" Bruce called, trying to figure out what was going on. The Doctor looked around the box and broke into a huge grin.

"Bruce!" the Doctor cried, pulling the former billionaire into a hug.

"Who are you and how do you know who I am?" Bruce demanded, not sure what to make of this strange man.

"Oh right. I'm the Doctor, nice to see you again," he said, straightening his bowtie and holding out his hand.

"The Doctor? But–"

"Regeneration. When I die, I can heal myself and change my body." Bruce blinked but nodded, having read something like that in UNIT's reports of him. "Say, what are you doing so far away from Gotham?" the Doctor asked, checking the location.

"Bane had me in a prison I'm guessing somewhere in the Middle East."

"Yep. So I'm guessing I'd need a ride back to Gotham?"

"I'd appreciate it." The Doctor motioned inside and Bruce went in, eyes widening at the interior. "Well? What d'ya think?" the Doctor grinned. The Batman shrugged.

"Pocket dimension of some sort?" he suggested and the Doctor smiled.

"I prefer, 'Bigger on the Inside,' but I guess I can make an exception for the World's Greatest Detective." He then started racing around the edge of the console, pressing buttons and flipping switches and twiddling dials like it was a game at the arcade. Bruce looked around, slightly impressed, and the Doctor looked up at him. "It's nice to see you again before…" he faltered and looked down, fiddling with the console. Bruce frowned.

"Doctor. What's wrong?" The Doctor sighed.

"I'm going to die Bruce. A woman who I think I may love is going to be forced to kill me and I can't stop it because it's a fixed point in time." He sat down on the bench and rubbed his forehead. Bruce, while not completely understanding the situation, understood the feelings of it and sat down next to him. "I'm ok with dying, it's just… I thought it'd be to save something," the Doctor explained, running a hand through his hair. Bruce nodded. He'd done a good bit of reading on the Doctor (or at least as much as he could collect, a few years back the records of him had started disappearing for some reason), and from what he understood, the Doctor had lost his entire world and had since been traveling through time and space, saving worlds and civilizations from those who sought to harm them, and avoiding murder as much as he could (though in some cases it was unavoidable). And while he did not approve of the murder, he could relate to the burden of protecting others at the cost of your own life and happiness, especially when considering what was waiting for him in Gotham.

"Bane's got Gotham under his thumb," he found himself saying. "The first time we fought, he broke my back. Something tells me that in order to stop him and save my city, I'm going to have to give up my life." The Doctor grimaced.

"I'm sorry I couldn't help you more."

"Not your fault; I won't pretend I understand that much about all this," the other man told him, motioning around to the bigger on the inside room, "but I've read enough quantum physics to understand that time travel is a tricky thing." The Doctor chuckled; oh boy, tricky couldn't even begin to cover it, not with his maybe wife being older than and having grown up with his potential parents-in-law. The TARDIS banged as it landed in Gotham City and the two men stood.

"It was very nice to meet you, Mr. Wayne," the Doctor said, holding out his hand.

"Same to you, Doctor," the Batman said, taking and shaking it. He headed for the door, turning around again at the last moment. "And Doctor, if you're going to die, make sure to say goodbye to the people you care about." The Time Lord smiled sadly.

"I will." The Prince of Gotham nodded and walked through the TARDIS doors for the last time, leaving the two lonely heroes to their fates.


End file.
